App Wont Go Into The Trash Can Mac

Mar 01, 2011  I can't actually get the files into the trash because they are said to be 'in use by another function' though I can't seem to identify what is using these files. No applications running, I've relaunched the finder, restarted the computer, however the files are in constant use, so therefore cannot be moved to the trash to be emptied. Jan 18, 2010  Thank you for those articles, but unfortunately none of the suggestions have allowed me to move an application the trash, which I think is the real problem. I was able to make a copy of an app that wouldn't move from the Apps folder and put it on the desktop, but it wont. Deleting files and emptying the trash on a Mac can be easy, unless you run into one of these problems: Emptying trash when item is in use, deleting a locked file, deleting files from a hard drive.

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Jun 29, 2020  Now try to empty trash, if it still doesn’t clear the dump, keep reading. Force Empty Trash in Mac OS X When File is Locked or in Use. In case you are getting a Locked file error, then press and hold the Option key, go to Finder → Empty Trash. This should have surely helped you in clearing Trash. The Option key signals macOS to bypass the. All the self-contained applications that an app invites into your system can be easily removed, hence removing even the last trace. From the various methods mentioned above, you can pick any of the manual method. But to be absolutely sure and let the work be done carefreely will definitely want you to try Smart Mac Care. For apps installed from the Mac App Store (MAS), do this: Open the Launchpad. Click and hold on the app you wish to delete. When you do this you'll see the apps start to wiggle just like they do on iPhones and iPads, and little X buttons will appear on the icons of apps that can be deleted.

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Mail User Guide

Use Junk Mail preferences in Mail to change options for managing junk mail and blocked senders.

To change these preferences in the Mail app on your Mac, choose Mail > Preferences, then click Junk Mail.

Junk Mail Behaviors

App Wont Go Into The Trash Can Mac

Option

Description

Enable junk mail filtering

Turn Mail’s junk mail filter on or off.

If your email account filters junk mail on the mail server, messages might be moved to the Junk mailbox even when this option isn’t selected.

Mark as junk mail, but leave it in my Inbox

Highlight junk mail with color and leave it in your Inbox.

These messages contain a banner across the top with a button to confirm whether the message is junk. This setting is useful for monitoring what Mail considers junk mail.

Move it to the Junk mailbox

Mail automatically moves messages that it considers junk to the Junk mailbox.

This setting is useful when you’re confident that Mail correctly identifies junk mail and you don’t want those messages in your inbox.

Perform custom actions

Refine the junk mail filter by adding conditions to identify junk mail, and actions such as deleting those messages.

When you select this option, you can set advanced criteria to identify junk mail.

The following types of messages are exempt from junk mail filtering

Don’t filter messages from senders who are in the Contacts app, you’ve previously corresponded with, or know your full name.

Trust junk mail headers in messages

Use any junk mail detection already present in messages you receive. Mail uses this information to more accurately identify junk mail.

Filter junk mail before applying my rules

Mail runs the junk mail filter before it runs any rules that you created.

This option ensures that all messages, even those that your rules might move out of the Inbox, are evaluated by the junk filter.

Reset

Restore the default criteria for identifying junk mail.

Use this option only if Mail no longer handles junk mail as you expect. Resetting the filter deletes everything that Mail has learned from you about junk mail.

Advanced

Set criteria that messages must meet to be identified as junk mail. This option is available only when you select “Perform custom actions.”

Blocked

Option

Description

Enable blocked mail filtering

Block email messages from specific senders and control what happens to the messages when they arrive.

Mark as blocked mail, but leave it in my Inbox

Indicate a sender is blocked but leave their messages in your Inbox.

These messages contain a banner across the top with a button to display the Blocked pane in Mail preferences, where you can manage blocked senders.

Move it to the Trash

Automatically move messages from blocked senders to the Trash mailbox, so you don’t see their messages in your Inbox.

Email address list

The list of email addresses whose messages you’re blocking.

Add , Remove

Add an email address to the list of blocked senders, or remove one.

You can also add an email address to the list or remove it by clicking the arrow next to the sender’s name in a message, then choosing Block Contact or Unblock Contact.

See alsoReduce junk mail in Mail on MacBlock senders in Mail on MacMark emails as read or unread in Mail on Mac

Files in the Trash still take up space on your Mac. So if you can’t empty the Trash, you might quickly find yourself running out of storage on your Mac altogether. It’s a frustrating problem, but we can show you how to fix it today!

There are plenty of reasons why you might not be able to empty the Trash. Sometimes you might have a corrupt file that can’t be removed, other times you might be trying to delete an important system file that is protected by macOS.

Some users ignored the storage warnings on their Mac for so long their hard drive or SSD completely filled up. Counter-intuitively, when this happens it becomes impossible to delete anything.

Fortunately, whatever caused your problems, you can easily fix it with the steps below. Save yourself time by trying to empty the Trash again after each step.

Contents

  • 1 Step 1. Close apps that might block you emptying the Trash
  • 2 Step 2. Boot your Mac into Safe Mode to stop background processes
  • 3 Step 3. Use Disk Utility to repair corruptions on your disk
  • 4 Step 4. Delete files immediately without emptying the Trash
  • 5 Step 5. Check the files in your Trash aren’t locked
  • 6 Step 6. Use Terminal to forcefully empty the Trash
  • 7 Step 7. Erase your Mac and restore from a backup

Related:

Step 1. Close apps that might block you emptying the Trash

You can’t empty the Trash on your Mac if one of the files you’re trying to delete is already in use. For example, you can’t delete a Pages document if you’ve still got that document open in the Pages app.

The simple solution is to close every app on your Mac, saving your documents to a safe location as you do so. It’s best to restart your Mac afterward, to make sure no other apps are running in the background.

How do I close every app and restart my Mac?

  1. Use the following two keyboard shortcuts to switch between and close every app on your Mac, except for Finder:
    1. Switch between open apps using: command+tab
    2. Close the active app using: command+Q.
  2. If you an app refuses to close, press option+command+escape to open the Force Quit window. Select the app and click ‘Force Quit’ to close it.
  3. After closing every app, go to  > Shut Down.
  4. Deselect the option to ‘Reopen windows when logging back in.’
  5. Confirm you want to ‘Shut Down’ your Mac and wait at least 30 seconds before restarting it.

Step 2. Boot your Mac into Safe Mode to stop background processes

Occasionally there are background processes or startup items on your Mac that block you from emptying the Trash. It’s easy to run your Mac without these processes starting up by booting into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode also clears a small amount of storage on your Mac by deleting some cached system files. If your Mac is running low on storage, this helps it to function better and may allow you to empty the Trash again.

How do I boot my Mac into Safe Mode?

  1. From the menu bar on your Mac, go to  > Shut Down.
  2. Confirm you want to ‘Shut Down’ your Mac and wait at least 30 seconds to let it power down.
  3. Briefly press the power button then immediately press and hold the shift key to boot your Mac into Safe Mode.
  4. Release the shift key when a login screen appears. It should say ‘Safe Boot’ in the menu bar.

Step 3. Use Disk Utility to repair corruptions on your disk

There might be a problem with the hard drive or SSD in your Mac. This often results in slow performance or corrupted documents. Soemtimes, it’s the reason you can’t empty the Trash.

Fortunately, it’s usually fairly pain-free and easy to fix these error using the First Aid function within Disk Utility. This function scans your hard drive or SSD and repairs whatever errors it can find. Usually the scan is finished in less than ten minutes, but it might take longer if there are lots of errors.

How do I use Disk Utility to run First Aid on my Mac?

  1. Boot your Mac into Recovery Mode:
    1. From the menu bar on your Mac, go to  > Shut Down.
    2. Confirm you want to ‘Shut Down’ and wait at least 30 seconds to let it power down.
    3. Briefly press the power button then immediately press and hold command+R to boot your Mac into Recovery Mode.
  2. Open Disk Utility from the macOS Utilities window
  3. Select your hard drive or SSD from the sidebar. If there are multiple drives nested in one another, select the highest level drive.
  4. Click First Aid from the top of the window.
  5. Confirm you want to run First Aid and wait for the scan to complete.
  6. Once the scan is finished, go to  > Restart to boot your Mac normally again.
Pro

Step 4. Delete files immediately without emptying the Trash

It’s possible to delete files without sending them to the Trash at all. You can use this function to remove files from your Mac even when you can’t empty the Trash.

When you bypass the Trash to delete items, you need to be absolutely certain you’re deleting the right file. It’s impossible to undo this action if you make a mistake.

How do I delete files immediately without emptying the Trash?

  1. Double-click the Trash can to view its contents in Finder.
  2. Select the file or files you want to delete; hold shift to select multiple files.
  3. Immediately delete those files with either of the methods below:
    1. Use the keyboard shortcut option+command+delete.
    2. Hold the option key and go to File > Delete Immediately.
  4. In the pop-up window, confirm you want to ‘Delete’ the file or files.

Step 5. Check the files in your Trash aren’t locked

macOS lets you lock files you don’t want to change. When a file is locked, you can’t move it, rename it, or edit it in any other way. You can usually delete it, but a pop-up appears when you do so.

That said, it’s possible that a software bug, software update, or software corruption is stopping you from deleting locked files. If there aren’t too many items in your Trash, it’s worth checking each of them to see if they’re locked.

How do I find and unlock locked files in the Trash?

  1. Double-click the Trash can to view its contents in Finder.
  2. For each item in the Trash:
      1. Control-click it and select Get Info.
      2. Under the ‘General’ section of the Get Info window, uncheck the ‘Locked’ box.

Step 6. Use Terminal to forcefully empty the Trash

App Wont Go Into The Trash Can Mac Pro

Terminal allows you to use commands to perform advanced functions in macOS. Amongst many other things, you can use Terminal to forcefully empty the Trash. This is often effective at bypassing whatever is blocking you.

Normally we don’t recommend Terminal unless you’re an experienced macOS user. However, you shouldn’t experience any problems if you closely follow our instructions below. Make sure you enter the commands exactly as we’ve written them, including every space and punctuation mark, otherwise it may not work.

How do I use Terminal to empty the Trash on my Mac?

  1. Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in your Applications.
  2. Copy and paste the following command into Terminal (including the space at the end), but don’t press return yet:
    sudo rm -R
  3. Double-click the Trash can to view its contents in Finder.
  4. From the menu bar, go to Edit > Select All.
  5. Drag and drop the contents of your Trash into the Terminal window.
  6. Back in Terminal, press the return key.
  7. It should prompt you for a password.
  8. Type your administrator password then press return again. Nothing appears onscreen as you type your password.
  9. If that didn’t work, copy and paste the following command into Terminal:
    rm -rf ~/Trash/*
  10. Press the return key, then press Y to confirm you want to empty the Trash.

Step 7. Erase your Mac and restore from a backup

If none of our above suggestions worked and you still can’t empty the Trash on your Mac, it might be time to erase the machine completely. There are a couple of different ways you can choose to do this.

If you have a series of Time Machine backups, you could restore your Mac from a time when it still let you empty the Trash. Otherwise, you could completely erase your hard drive or SSD and manually copy the data you want to recover from a backup.

App Won't Go In Trash On Mac

Whichever method you choose, we strongly recommend you use Time Machine to make a new backup of your Mac first. Without a backup, erasing your Mac will result in losing your photos, videos, and other documents.

How do I erase my Mac and restore data from a backup?

  1. Boot your Mac into Recovery Mode:
    1. From the menu bar on your Mac, go to  > Shut Down.
    2. Confirm you want to ‘Shut Down’ and wait at least 30 seconds to let it power down.
    3. Briefly press the power button then immediately press and hold command+R to restart your Mac in Recovery Mode.
  2. Option 1: Restore your Mac using Time Machine.
    1. Click ‘Restore from Time Machine Backup.’
    2. Follow the onscreen prompts to select the backup you want to restore.
  3. Option 2: Completely erase your hard drive or SSD.
    1. Click ‘Disk Utility’ from the macOS Utilities window.
      1. Select your Mac’s hard disk or SSD in the sidebar.
      2. Click Erase and choose a name, format, and scheme.
      3. Confirm you want to ‘Erase’ your disk.
    2. Back in the Utilities window, click ‘Install macOS.’
        1. Follow the onscreen prompts and wait for the installation to complete.
        2. Set up your Mac and manually recover data from a backup.

Let us know in the comments if you found this guide helpful. Or let us know if you still can’t empty the Trash on your Mac, hopefully we can work out what’s going wrong together.

App Wont Go Into The Trash Can Mac Download

Dan is a freelance writer based in South West England.

He spent two years supervising repairs as a Genius Admin for Apple Retail and uses that knowledge to keep our troubleshooting guides up to date.

Long before that, Dan turned to Apple products from a musical background. Having owned iPods for years, he bought a MacBook to learn sound recording and production. It was using those skills that he gained a first-class Bachelor of Science in Sound Technology.

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